Masa's Bar

In light of exhange rates hurting Japanese exporters, it is especially impressive that Nintendo was able to perform as strongly as it did.  Sony didn't do so hot with a report 50% decrease in net profit, although the gaming division (Sony Computer Entertainment) was profitable for the first time in several quarters.

Another notable mention is the Credit Suisse analyst who is forseeing another updated version of the Nintendo DS in early 2009.  Given the multiple iterations of Nintendo's other handheld consoles, it wouldn't be surprising to see a third incarnation of the Nintendo DS, but what kinds of features would it carry?  

Yet the numbers also seem to indicate that the upward slope for Nintendo's profits is starting to level off, with more conservative sales projections for the near horizon.  Wii Music, while a noteworthy announcement for the recently-held E3 expo, may not have carried the weight that Wii Fit did last year.  

Of course, if I had a choice, I would much rather be caught dead playing Wii Music than balancing myself on a Wii Fit balance board. 

FT.com -- Nintendo reports 32% rise in profits

Okay, yes, video chat is pretty convenient after all.  You can show people your surroundings, things you bought that day, or talk about the food you're eating while showing other people how much you enjoy your food as well. 

Of course, there are plenty of things you don't want to be caught doing:

Preface

After years of denial, I finally gave in and installed Skype on my MacBook.  Thankfully it has an iSight camera and microphone built-in, so I didn't have to deal with any of the hassles involved in procuring the right camera for video chat.  

I was always opposed to video chat because that would require both parties to be focused on each other for the duration of the conversation.  

Just as a disclaimer, I would like to say that this was a one-sided video chat, that is, the other person had a microphone and no webcam, so my first Skype experience may have been quite different from that of most other people.  

Part 1 - Nailing the right "look" using Skype

Sure, video / audio chat for free is pretty cool, but that comes with the added cost of making sure not to look like this when you call someone on Skype:  

Once I got past the awkward experience of looking at myself talk, another dilemma surfaced: how close should I be to the camera in order to achieve the maximum enjoyment from the video chat experience?

A few attempts follow, from closest to farthest:

Sure, I could get the closest view of you on my monitor, but it also looks like I am trying to peek down your shirt.


A little less awkward, but I still feel uncomfortable about my distance from the camera.  

Now it just looks like you would be staring at a talking, disgruntled, and most of all, decapitated head.  No thanks.  

In essence, this becomes a choice not between what looks best out of all the distances, but rather, the lesser of many evils.  Needless to say, the middle option won out, but not without considerable amount of trial and error on my part.  

The second part of this series will discuss things you don't want to be caught doing while using Skype.  

Despite their long history relative to computer games or many Olympic sports, "mind sports," such as chess or bridge, have yet to see an international arena where a series of mind sports competitions would be held. 

That is, until right after the Beijing Olympics; the first World Mind Sports Games will be held after the Summer Olympics there come to a close, and will feature five competitions in the following games:

• Bridge
• Chess
• Go
• Draughts (Checkers)
• Xiangqi(Chinese Chess)

I would be curious to see how games like Go or Xiangqi are played by those outside their respective countries.  Perhaps it's hard for some to imagine how a game of checkers could be played at a high level, but hopefully this competition will prove nonbelievers like myself wrong. 

Sources:
Wikipedia: World Mind Sports Games
Nikkei Net: 10月に北京で史上初の「頭脳五輪」、囲碁の山下王座ら出場

According to Nihon Keizai Shinbun, starting in the fall, Bandai Visual (subsidiary of Bandai Namco) will release Japanese animation feature movies simultaneously around the world in Blu-Ray format. 

The most interesting aspect of the story is that the titles will be priced similarly throughout the world as well.  This includes areas such as Japan, the United States, Europe, and Asia.  The Asia release is especially noteworthy because prices for animation movie titles have traditionally been lower than Japanese or even American releases. 

The chart below is a quick comparison I made of retail prices of a couple of animation titles.  CCA stands for Mobile Suit Gundam - Char's Counterattack, while APS stands for Appleseed.  The price differences between these two regions alone are steep enough -- I wonder how a worldwide one-price scheme will be skewed. 


The reasons for this decision probably have to do with Bandai Namco realizing that there are plenty of holes where opportunistic fans can exploit to download movies through the internet.  Anime DVDs in Japan were traditionally sold at a premium because the companies could collect more revenue from die-hard fans willing to pay extra to watch certain movies at home.  Once the revenue from these guys was captured, DVDs could be sold abroad at a discount. 

The fact that this business model has been dumped hints at a price that will be slightly lower for Japanese consumers and slightly higher for consumers everywhere else.  Right now people seem to be willing to pay a premium for Blu-Ray media -- and prices for Blu-Ray titles have increased somewhat since Toshiba dropped the HD-DVD format.

Source:
人気アニメ作品、全世界同時発売・バンダイビジュアル（日経ネット）

A piece on Livedoor News discussed the Nintendo Wii's role in the shutdown of a couple of well-established bookstore locations (not the bookstore company itself) in Japan. 

No matter that the print industry in Japan in general has been suffering for the past several years -- according to a source quoted in the article, people are spending much more of their disposable income on video games and cell phones.  In turn, the Wii is the nail in the coffin that finally did these bookstores in. 

What this article suggests is that people in Tokyo's most affluent districts have a limited budget on which they have to choose between buying a few extra books or an extra racing wheel for Mario Kart Wii. 

The Wii has been blamed for arcades shutting down, but bookstores?  Where's the scapegoating going to go next?

Source:
任天堂栄えて本屋潰れる　旭屋書店閉店の衝撃度